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Nigeria: Salvaging Nigerian Universities – Ladipo Adamolekunhttps://emotanafricana.com/2017/05/04/nigeria-salvaging-nigerian-universities-ladipo-adamolekun/
https://emotanafricana.com/2017/05/04/nigeria-salvaging-nigerian-universities-ladipo-adamolekun/#respondThu, 04 May 2017 05:28:04 +0000http://emotanafricana.com/?p=43800Since the posting of Independent Scholar, Professor Adamolekun’s Education Sector in Crisis: Evidence, Causes and Possible Remedies on this blog in January 2013, the paper has proved so popular that I re-blogged it in November 2014. The Lecture had been delivered as “Distinguished Lecture of Joseph Ayo Babalola University”, Ọṣun State of Nigeria in January 2013.

This new post was a convocation Lecture delivered by Adamolekun, a Nigerian National Order of Merit Awardee at the Federal University of Oye, Ekiti State last month, and deals with the same subject of Education in the country’s tertiary institutions.

While the 2013 paper deals with the problems in Nigeria’s universities using copious examples and causes as well as offering possible remedies, the new subject deals extensively with saving Nigeria’s universities from its now very low quality. Adamolekun draws examples from his experience as student and teacher at Nigerian universities which contrasts sharply with what has been the downward spiral situation for many years.

In Part I, he looks at the state of university education during his time at the University of Ibadan (UI) and discusses how the university was able to turn out world-class students in an institution that is now worse than a shadow of its old glorious past.

“… before the prevailing decline, there was an earlier era of quality university education in the country. The highlights of that era are presented in Part One of this Lecture. Part Two is focused on the evidence and causes of decline. In Part Three, the main remedial measures introduced and implemented, in varying degrees, since the return to civilian rule in 1999 are summarised and assessed. Finally, in Part Four, I provide six concluding thoughts and recommendations.”

While the grading of Higher Education to show which universities are “world class” and where such institutions stand on a scale started after the era of Nigeria’s glorious past in university education, Adamolekun’s paper shows how we can compare the education at Nigeria’s universities like UI with those in other parts of the world at that time.

He lists some of the factors that made the competitiveness of UI education, for example, with top universities of the world as –

the availability of quality expatriate and Nigerian teachers,

good educational infrastructure, including well-stocked libraries at both central and departmental levels that met the needs of staff and students,

the availability of municipal services like water and electricity supplies in the hostels and lecture rooms, et cetera

students generally enjoyed stress-free good quality of life, including decent food in a decent environment that made their goals of being in a university to study, their only worry.

Adamolekun points out his personal experience that made him realize and appreciate the quality of education he had received at a Nigerian tertiary institution once he left UI for a world-class university:

“… the high quality of education at Ibadan in those days. First, when my cohort of new students matriculated in November 1964, ten or more of us were male and female students who had completed their secondary education (“A” level) in the United Kingdom. Their parents (including one who later became the Vice-Chancellor at Ibadan before we graduated) had concluded that Ibadan was the equal of the top universities in the United Kingdom. Second, when I went up to Oxford to begin my graduate studies in October 1969, I felt that I was the equal of the other graduate students who matriculated that year. And it was no surprise that I was among the group of postgraduate students in the 1969 cohort in St. Antony’s College that were awarded DPhil degrees within three years.”

The paper looks at four of the remedial measures introduced since the return to civilian rule in 1999 to stall the decline in quality of education at Nigerian universities and remedy the situation : “restoration of university autonomy; increased access for qualified students; improved financial support; and enhanced research capability cum centres of excellence.”

He points out Nigeria’s usual problems as being behind why the Restoration of Autonomy to universities which went as far as leading to a Universities Autonomy Act that was signed into law in July 2004 is still stuck at the National Assembly in over a decade: the relegating of any/all matters to political problems.

The National Universities Commission (NUC), the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) and academic heads of universities – vice-chancellors – who, for many years have become “political office holders [who] lack high moral ground” and like others, including the Academic Staff through their umbrella union, the ASUU, as being all unable and/or unwilling to push for university autonomy because of personal agendas.

Salvaging university education in Nigeria is an arduous task which would require the will of political leadership in the country to bring about not only the finalization, by giving legal life to the Universities Autonomy Act, to restoring autonomy to the universities. This should bring back a measure of the quality that characterized Nigeria’s glorious past in educational achievement when graduates from the country’s secondary schools and A-Levels went on to top world-class universities: Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, et cetera, and when – the subject of this paper – the graduates of its universities proceeded to graduate (post graduate) schools (including many through academic scholarships and fellowships: Rockefeller & Ford Foundations; AFGRAD, ASPAU …).

This Lecture is even more readable (at least for a non-academic like this blogger), and definitely more interesting than the one in 2013. I’m sure it should attract a lot of readers like the earlier one which, as of March 30 – four years after its initial posting – had attracted over four thousand, seven hundred views [Source: wordpress.com]

Professor Ladipo Adamolekun’s autobiography benefits immensely from a habit of meticulous record-keeping, a habit he had acquired before turning twenty in the early 1960s. It is an inheritance from his late father – our father, I must state right here – who, without formal education, not only taught himself to read and write Yoruba but rudimentary English Language. It made an easy task of writing his biography by this blogger from jottings he kept meticulously since the early years of the 20th Century to the time of his death 29 years ago; it had an opening entry, 1908 ni mo dé ìlú Baba mi ni Ijù – I arrived at my father’s Iju hometown in 1908. He had spent his earlier years with his mother and their extended families in the mother’s Ìsẹ̀-Èkìtì hometown.

From that 1908 entry, J.F. Adamolekun meticulously recorded not only the birth dates, days of the week and hours of all his children, but birth dates of children of relations and others at Iju who went to him for such assistance. He also recorded important dates marking the growth of the first Anglican Church, including names of catechists and priests, and facts such as the laying of a church corner stone by the Archbishop of the Anglican Province of West Africa, His Grace L.G. Vining who is immortalized in Nigeria’s Anglican Communion today with churches and institutions named after him. A particular entry would prove very useful to the Akure Diocese – to which Iju belongs – when the Diocese celebrated a major milestone some years ago.

It comes therefore as no surprise that I Remember has decades of diary-keeping to draw from for this enjoyable and easy-to-read life’s story. Ladipo’s record-keeping shows in the illustrations/photographs in I Remember. An entry in his 1963 Diary, for example, shows how he brings the past to life easily when memory would not have served:

I have fond memories of officiating in church services thrice in 1962 and 1963. According to my diary entry for Sunday, December 29, 1963, “I led Students’ Service today”. Appropriately, Mr. J.M. Babalola (one of the early graduates in the community) preached a sermon on university education during the service.

At the beginning of Chapter 4 is another gem, an entry on August 8, 1964 that is a pointer to Ladipo’s persona: the meticulous record-keeper though yet-to-matriculate-student heading to UI, already has his focus on graduation day – four years ahead:

UI degree results were published this week. No First Class Honours in History again! I am thinking seriously whether I’ll be able to make it. I hope to work hard with that in view.

Ladipo would make “it”, a First Class Honours in French, a subject he did not pick up till the University of Ibadan, and a language he not only became very fluent at (not my opinion!), but a mastery of which has made public administration in French West Africa part of his scholarship. Among his many published works – several are available through amazon.com, Sekou Toure’s Guinea: An Experiment in Nation Building, 1976, is an example of his wide contribution to knowledge of French West Africa’s public administration and history.

After retiring from the University of Ife where he rose to Deanship, he would spend about two decades at The World Bank from which he retired a few years ago as the Country Head of The Bank’s Office in Togo, a French West African country and his last station after years not only at the Washington Headquarters but also a stint in Kenya.

Ladipo was a student activist and became the PRO of the University of Ibadan during the 1965/66 session, a period when campus politics and Nigeria’s politics collided. The Union, just like the university at large, was split into two when the Vice Chancellor (the academic head) and the Registrar (the administrative head) were pitted against each other; the VC (Ibo) and Adamolekun (Yoruba) each had overwhelming support from their ethnic groups. I Remember details how the Students’ Union President dragged the Union into the imbroglio against the wishes of Ladipo and some members of the executive. He resigned from his post as the Students’ Union PRO on principle.

Thursday, May 12, 2016 saw the first public presentation of I Remember at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos. There were additional “launches” at Abuja and Akure later that month. Akure ,the capital of Ondo State, is twelve miles from Iju where Adamolekun tends a Public Affairs Library he endowed for universities within 30 mile-radius of Iju – there are about half a dozen – where he spends most of his retirement years.

Mr. Sam Amuka-Pemu [Publisher of Nigeria’s Vanguard newspapers and a renowned journalist who wrote under the pen name Sad Sam; ‘sad’, only about Nigeria!] share a mirthful moment with retired General Ipòọla Àlàní Akinriade, Nigeria’s 1st Chief of Defence Staff from 1980, and another guest at the Lagos public presentation.[Credit: allure.vanguardngr.com]

ABUJA

The Abuja public presentation was attended by friends and family, including Dr. Fayemi, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals. In this photograph, Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Ọ̀ṣíbàjò who commended the author for “consistency and ethical orientation which he has exhibited over the years …”, is shown with author and his wife.[Credit: guardianng.com]

Of twenty photographs in the book, two are of particular interest as they show Ladipo’s penchant for holding on to documents prove very useful in the writing of I Remember. A photograph shows his supporters carrying placards that supported him during the campaign for the students’ election of 1965. The other is his Action Group of Nigeria (AG) Membership Card No. 74387 of 1964 with a photograph of the sage in the middle and a palm tree, the party’s symbol, on each side!

While it was common for MOST students in Southwestern Nigeria’s Yoruba homeland back then to belong to the youth wing of the AG, a badge of honor – that’s what the card represented back then – was the party’s card. For Ladipo to have kept that card till today is a testimony of a habit formed when very young.

By the way, in the turbulent political days of the 1960s that set Nigeria on the chaos she has never recovered from, Ladipo’s Awoism – enthusiastic believers of Chief Awolowo’s philosophy and politics – was cemented with his Omo Awo – child of Awo – column for Nigeria’s oldest and first private newspaper, The Tribune founded in 1949 by Awo to propagate his populist programs. Today, Ladipo seats on the Board of Trustees of The Awolowo Foundation.

Author’s A.G. Card, issued 1964

By the time he entered Òyemẹkùn Grammar School, he already exhibited a seriousness and focus that would serve him throughout his education and professional life. As foreword to Part I, “The Early Years”, Ladipo writes:

For the benefit of non-Nigerians and Nigerians not of Ladipo’s generation, the idea of a 13-year old choosing a Latin motto that is same as that of the Royal Air Force (British) may be far-fetched but it is not.

[By the way, Ladipo entered Oyemekun in 1956, a school where he would meet Kole Omotoso, a year after his entry; Kole would become his life-long friend and a younger or older ‘brother’ to all Adamolekuns.]

Life-long friends, Kọle Ọmọtọṣọ and Author, an interesting photograph dating back over 50 years of the friends used among the few in I Remember.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Latin was a subject taught in most Nigerian secondary schools starting from the First Form. While it is possible that the author could have come by that phrase in one of those ancient English Grammar books like Redoubt or his Latin text at that age, many Nigerian pupils of that era, including those who did not study Latin at all would memorize extensive Latin phrases just as they would memorize huge chunks of Shakespeare for same purposes!

And having chosen reaching the stars as his goal, Ladipo worked hard to become one in educational and professional achievements.

I remember details his early life in a large extended family home at Iju central to which was school, church and the father’s extensive cocoa farm, including various fruits, yams, vegetables and other food crops.

Ladipo’s hard work and focus paid off right from elementary school at the St. Stephen’s School, Iju and the United Senior Primary, Iju-Itaogbolu where he excelled. His secondary education would follow the same pattern at Oyemekun and Christ’s School. He would enter UI with excellent Higher School Certificate results (equivalent to the General Certificate of Education at “Advanced Level”) before proceeding to start a degree program in History. Although his only foreign language subject had been Latin in which he made a Distinction in the West African School Certificate (WASC), French would become his major at UI. He referenced the quality of teaching at Nigeria’s premier university of the era as the basis for his success in the following excerpt:

Although I did not study French at Oyemekun and Christ’s School, the quality of teaching … was such that at the end of the four-year programme, my competency in French was superior to that in English in some respects: my oral French was slightly better than my oral English and my translation from English to French was better than the reverse …

My opinion of I Remember – the early caveat, regardless – is a book that is very readable, nothing is left out – warts at all – that should be known by the public about a scholar who may like his privacy but who has a good measure of public recognition. It is a book that really gets a bibliophile engaged and leaves the reader with a feeling of satisfaction. The well-stocked Ladipo Adamolekun Public Affairs Library is not only a showcase of the author’s love of books but is Ladipo’s way of giving back to graduate students in that field of the neighboring universities a place where they can have access to research materials that would not likely be available at their institutions.

It’s a book I would recommend because it not only details the life’s path of Ladipo Adamolekun and his many successes but it is a good template for young people on some of the ways to achieve their goals. The author’s encounters and the politics in Nigerian universities, disappointments, even tragedies are not left out.

Of many autobiographies and biographies of Nigerian men and women I’ve had the opportunity to read over the years -again, the caveat – I Remember is, perhaps, one of the few that is not vainglorious despite the great achievements of the author, and not plumped-up for effect. It is a story of a life told in such meticulous details and eloquent language that makes the author the only person who could have told his own story so well and so readable.

CREDIT: 2015, Jumoke Adamolekun

As Ladipo turns seventy-four today, here’s to a jolly day, and many healthy and happy years ahead.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 2016. 12:10 a.m. [GMT]

]]>https://emotanafricana.com/2016/07/20/book-announcement-ladipo-adamolekuns-autobiographical-i-remember-tola-adenle/feed/0emotanL. AdamolekunAGcardKole Omotoso and LadipoIJU PUBLIC AFFAIRSbldgThe Challenge of Achieving Educational Excellence in Ondo State – Professor Ladipo Adamolekunhttps://emotanafricana.com/2015/11/09/the-challenge-of-achieving-educational-excellence-in-ondo-state-professor-ladipo-adamolekun/
https://emotanafricana.com/2015/11/09/the-challenge-of-achieving-educational-excellence-in-ondo-state-professor-ladipo-adamolekun/#commentsMon, 09 Nov 2015 05:14:15 +0000http://emotanafricana.com/?p=13559Text of a Lecture delivered at the invitation of Ondo State Public Sphere
Akure, Thursday, November 5th 2015.

Tertiary Education

The architecture of tertiary education in the state needs to be reconfigured. Besides the unclear binary distinction between RUGPOLY and the universities, there are no apparent interlinkages among all the four tertiary institutions. Furthermore, the lack of attention to teacher education at the tertiary level contrasts markedly with the other states in the South-west that have either a College of Education (Lagos, Osun and Oyo states) or a University of Education (Ogun state). It is also noteworthy that Akure Division is the only one of the state’s five constituent cultural and administrative divisions without a state-owned higher education institution. Recommendation: There is need for a summit of all relevant stakeholders to critically review the tertiary education sub-sector in the state. The Summit’s recommendations should be developed into a Fifteen-Year Higher Education Plan to be implemented by successive governments.

… the recent establishment of a University of Medical Sciences, Ondo (UMSO) raises questions about the state’s prioritisation in respect of the three education sub-sectors: should a huge investment at the tertiary education level have priority over increased funding for public primary and secondary education?

A rapid survey of three public secondary schools and three private secondary schools in Akure North LGA in March 2015 revealed three success factors in the private schools that are missing in the public secondary schools: stability of school leadership, fairly conducive learning and teaching environment, and provision of boarding for students in two of the three schools. Are there lessons the government can learn from these success factors to promote improved performance in the public secondary schools?

]]>https://emotanafricana.com/2015/11/09/the-challenge-of-achieving-educational-excellence-in-ondo-state-professor-ladipo-adamolekun/feed/4emotanUrgent real restructuring of Nigeria necessary “so that States and Local Governments can truly serve as the engine of development” – Jerome Afeikhenahttps://emotanafricana.com/2015/04/15/urgent-real-structuring-of-nigeria-necessary-so-that-states-and-local-governments-can-truly-serve-as-the-engine-of-development-jerome-afeikhena/
https://emotanafricana.com/2015/04/15/urgent-real-structuring-of-nigeria-necessary-so-that-states-and-local-governments-can-truly-serve-as-the-engine-of-development-jerome-afeikhena/#respondWed, 15 Apr 2015 01:19:07 +0000http://emotanafricana.com/?p=12695For the benefit of new blog visitors, The Iju Public Affairs Forum Series (IPAF), a lecture presentation that is now in its tenth year, has been presented on this blog from the beginning. Despite its generally very academic look at various subjects in governance in Nigeria and the society, it has generated impressive numbers, mostly through search engines with search terms – in the past one week, for example – such as: “Does communal crisis affect education?” “Ashby Commission on education”, “2010, 2011 and 2012 allocation of budget to education in Nigeria”, “What are the main problems of university education in Nigeria? et cetera, that lead blog visitors to “Education Sector in Crisis Evidence Causes and Possible Remedies”, a subject that has attracted 2,977 visitors – twenty-three visitors short of 3,000. Though prepared by the Founder/Convener of the Forum, Professor Ladipo Adamolekun and presented as an institutional forum in January 2013 at the Babalola University (JABU), Ipetu-Ijesa rather than at the Public Affairs Library at Iju where the IPAF holds; “Eduction Sector …” is grouped with the series.

In the latest edition, Dr. Jerome Afeikhena, the National Coordinator, State Peer Review Mechanism of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat, takes a timely look back at “sub-national governments and the development process in Nigeria”. The author points to the problems of the country’s economic development and growth, for example, as stemming partly from a system where the lower-tier governing units – states and local governments – in a supposed federal system all have to look to the central government as perhaps the sole driver of development.

Dr. Afeikhena’s summary is below; the full paper can be accessed through the link at the bottom of the summary.

TOLA.

Dr Afeikhena Jerome appraises the roles of state and local governments in governance and development in Nigeria since the return to civilian rule in 1999. As a backdrop, he reviews the meaning of development and concludes that it is fundamentally about achieving improvement in the quality of life of citizens, including a focus on the elimination of poverty and reduction of income inequality. And he draws attention to indicators for measuring development, notably the Human Development Index (HDI) that is used to compare the level of development of countries, focused on life expectancy, education, and standard of living.

Next, he provides an overview of “states and federalism in Nigeria”, highlighting the three-tier governance structure enshrined in the country’s 1999 Constitution: a central government, 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory and 774 Local Government Authorities (LGAs). He draws attention to skewed allocation of functions in favour of the central government (68 exclusive functions and 24 shared concurrently with state governments) and a revenue allocation formula that assigns close to 53% to the central government with the remaining 47% shared between state and local governments (27% and 20% respectively). He concludes that these arrangements are not consistent with the widely-acclaimed principle of subsidiarity – that government services should be devolved to the lowest level of government capable of providing the services effectively. He also points out that local governments constitute the weakest tier of government in Nigeria’s federal system: weak political and administrative leaders combined with state governments’ encroachment on their functions and financial resources.

Regarding the development performance of sub-national governments, Jerome uses several indicators to assess state governments but avoids ranking the overall results “since every state has its unique characteristics”. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), fiscal indicators (including budgets, internally generated revenue, Federation Account allocations) and macroeconomic and social indicators (including unemployment, poverty, HDI, inequality measure, gender, education) are the main indicators used by the author. The highlights include the following:

• Unsurprisingly, Lagos State and Rivers State have the highest GDP and Lagos State’s GDP is superior to that of about 110 countries in the world. At the other end, Yobe State has the smallest GDP.
• Lagos State, Rivers State and Delta State are the top performers in respect of internally generated revenue (IGR) with Lagos State’s IGR accounting for about 42% of total revenues generated by the 36 states. The author links the inability of many states to grow their IGR to the difficulty they experience in paying the salaries of public officials.
• The huge differences in the rate of unemployment in the states are striking: about 40 percent in three states (Zamfara, Bauchi and Niger) and FCT while three states (Osun, Lagos and Kwara) record single-digit unemployment rate.
• According to multidimensional poverty Index (MPI) scores (covering education, health and living standards), half of the 36 states have more than 50% of their population in multidimensional poverty; two states (Yobe and Zamfara) have over 90% MPI poor; and three states (Lagos, Osun and Anambra) have less than 12% MPI poor.
• The HDI scores (covering life expectancy, education and income) are high in only FCT; six states (Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Lagos, Bayelsa, Delta and Ondo) fall within the medium category and the other states are ranked low.

The author also discusses the politics of development and suggests that states need to take “a politically smart approach to development”. He provides two examples: (i) the States Peer Review Mechanism (SPRM) and (ii) the Conditional Grant Scheme (CGS). In 2011, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) conceived the SPRM as an instrument to assist state governments accelerate the pace of development through periodic reviews of progress in the implementation of development policies, plans and programmes. This objective is to be achieved through the sharing of experiences among states and reinforcement of commendable and innovative practices unveiled in the process. To date, only Anambra and Ekiti States have completed the SPRM process. The two states were peer reviewed by the NGF in March 2013. Commendable practices as well as some areas of concern were identified in respect of both states. Each state put in place a Programme of Action to address the underlying deficiencies identified and Anambra State is already implementing some of the actions in its Programme.

According to the author, the Conditional Grant Scheme (CGS) was introduced in 2007 as a joint effort by the federal and state governments to accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is funded in part from the savings made from the Debt Relief Gains of about US$1 billion per annum that was linked to the settlement of Nigeria’s external debts. Additional resources for the CGS are provided by states in the form of counterpart funding. By 2010, all 36 states and FCT had met the qualifying criteria and benefitted from the CGS for varying number of years. Then, CGS was extended to LGAs in 2011. The author stresses that CGS is helping to promote better cooperation and collaboration among the tiers of government, including sharing lessons about good practices in governance, public service management and public financial management. To date, CGS funding has been largely devoted to projects focused on primary health care and water and sanitation. Between 2007 and 2014, federal government had contributed 55.25% of a total of N196.8 billion CGS fund with the States contributing the balance of 44.75%. Bayelsa and Taraba States recorded the highest involvement in CGS compared with Ondo and Ogun States that showed the least involvement.

In conclusion, the author asserts that governments at the three tiers will be faced with tough governance issues at the end of 2015 election cycle, notably insecurity, corruption and “a perfect storm” in the area of the economy. The decline in revenue earnings from oil will result in mismatch between needs and financial resources and States, in particular, must adopt creative initiatives such as stimulus packages to facilitate job creation and innovative approaches for mobilizing domestic resources. And he calls for urgent restructuring of the polity “so that States and Local Governments can truly serve as the engine of development”.